Tag: Michael Enright

I remember one of my instructors in journalism school who use to write book reviews who said that she wouldn’t write a review of a book she didn’t like and I thought “that’s a cop out.” And then this morning on CBC Radio One Michael Enright was talking to Margaret Atwood during a fundraiser for the Literary Review of Canada and the subject of book reviews came up and Atwood said she never writes reviews for books that she doesn’t like and there was something else about bloggers being hacks because they were essentially anonymous and couldn’t be sued but I’d zoned out by then. I really wanted to like this book and I really should have liked this book and I really, really tried really hard to like this book but I just didn’t. I really did not like Kirilow. But I did like Kora and the pandemic-induced post-apocalyptic theme and the sprinkling of Vancouver landmarks and locales. I don’t think I’ve ever felt bad about not liking a book before.

At the halfway point turn-around getting a beat down from Meredith MacGregor, who was the top woman in the 1 Mile race just 45 minutes earlier. Also, just like Meredith’s, that thing on my face came off very soon after the race.

Yesterday was the Moustache Miler and I raced the 5K and managed to raise a little over $614 for the Movember Foundation. It was a great event and I had a lot of fun with it. Facebook did not like it. At least that’s what I’m telling myself…it’s the algorithms, stupid! I still think that my “Movember Foundation: Men are dying young; Most of my social media feed: GOOD!” joke was pretty funny, but crickets on that post. I did get one person ask when I’m doing the Merkin Miler — which is a great question, btw. Anyway, I wanted to raise over $500 mostly just to see if I could, and as well to run faster than 20:09. I’ve never raced a 5KM before. My 20:09 PB is from what my watch says I ran the first 5KM of the Eastside 10K back in September of this year, where I set a personal best in the 10K (officially) and apparently the 5K (unofficially). I did not run a personal best time. I went out pretty quickly and then faded and finished in 20:28, which I still think is really great considering what these past two months have been like trying to get past this knee injury. Later when I checked my splits I was really surprised to see how consistent my times were for 2-3-4-5 kilometres. By 3KM I thought I was going to die but the clock seems to say it was all in my head. I finished third in my age group and 19th overall.